When the Stars Meet the Garden
by second-star-to-the-right-and
Summary: Beginning on Rose Weasley's first day at Hogwarts, we follow her, and her closest friends through everything that Hogwarts has to offer - all the teenage bits with a sprinkle of magic.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N This is my first fanfiction, so I welcome any reviews and comments - positive and negative, but please be polite. I'm very sensitive ;)**

**This chapter links in with the epilogue from the Deathly Hallows, and some of the dialogue is taken straight from there. **

**Disclaimer: However much I wish it, I am not J.K. Rowling and do not own Harry Potter or any of her characters, or you know, the rest of it. Just the main plot. **

* * *

**Chapter 1**

It was the first of September, and eleven year old Rose Weasley was bouncing around the many rooms of the Burrow, which would have been acceptable (she was going to be starting at Hogwarts, after all) had it not been six o'clock in the morning. The singing made it all the worse for her family.

"I'm going to Hogwaaaarrrtttss, going to Hogwaaaarrrrttttss."

"Yeah, we get it, now shut up." Her younger brother, Hugo, was not impressed. He still had to wait two years before he had the opportunity to loudly wake everyone up in the morning.

"Hugo, apologise. Let her be excited." Hermione, stumbling sleepily from her room, remembered how she had felt the day she had boarded the Hogwarts Express – she had still doubted the reality of it all, being muggle-born, but when she saw that beautiful steam train, she had fallen in love.

Ron, who was definitely not a morning person, stuck his head out of the door and sighed exasperatedly, "The Potters aren't even getting here for another three hours, and the Express doesn't leave for another two after that, so calm down and please, please be quiet. You're going to wake up Grandma and Granddad." Rose, quite small for her age, leaped into his arms and whispered into his ear,

"But I'm going to Hogwarts, Daddy." At that, he chuckled and gave her a squeeze. "Anyway," she continued, "Grandma's already started breakfast!"

The four of them made their way downstairs to see that Molly had indeed started to make breakfast – the scrambled eggs were stirring themselves, the bacon sizzling nicely, and the pancakes flipping of their own accord every thirty seconds or so. Ron slipped into the seat nearest to the food, no longer looking at all tired – food meant almost as much to him as his family did.

They had been at the Burrow for the last few weeks, as they always did when summer was coming to a close. Molly and Arthur were eternally glad to see them, as the Burrow was rather large for only the two of them – it was originally built to accommodate their seven children – and they loved their family to pieces. Regularly, the rest of the family would visit as well, and together they would have huge games of Quidditch in the orchard, with an extra Chaser or two on each team, so that absolutely everybody could join in. The family as a whole was a bit Quidditch-mad. As a result of regular visits, the cousins were very close, especially the younger ones, as they were quite similar in age and interests (Quidditch!).

"So, exactly how many Weasleys have those poor teachers got to put up with this year?" Molly asked Hermione, smiling.

"Hmm, well, there's our Rosie, and Albus, of course, then there's James, Fred, Molly, Victoire, Dominique and Louis," She counted them off on her fingers, "So that makes eight in all. Is that a record?"

"You know, I think it might be!" said Arthur, strolling into the kitchen.

At the sight of her ever-cheerful and enthusiastic Granddad, Rose started to singing again, and, much to her delight, he joined in.

Suddenly, there was a crash from the living room, and an extremely over-excited Albus leapt through the kitchen door, followed by an exhausted looking Harry, both with a light dusting of ash from the fireplace. Flooing wasn't a particularly elegant form of transportation.

"Harry!" Arthur exclaimed, "You're early! Did you bring the new plug for my collection?"

Sighing, Harry nodded, and handed Arthur the plug along with a small rubber duck. The glee on Arthur's face was enough to brighten anyone's day.

"Let me guess, Albus woke you up?" Hermione mumbled, pulling Harry into a tight hug before ruffling Albus's hair. Albus frowned before going to jump around with Rose. Evidently he thought he was too old to have his hair ruffled now that he was going to Hogwarts. Harry rolled his eyes,

"How did you know? Ginny's bringing Lily and James along once they're ready, but Lily's been a little upset this morning."

"Hugo's been a bit of a grump. But then, it _is_ early."

Ron was too busy stuffing his face to contribute to the conversation. He gave the briefest nod in greeting to Harry and grinned broadly at Albus, mouth still full, before returning to his eggs.

After everyone had finished their breakfast, they went upstairs to get ready. Rose was desperate to put her brand new Hogwarts robes on straight away, but Hermione convinced her that it was probably best that the Muggles at Kings Cross didn't witness that, however, Rose insisted that she needed to carry around her Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1 and her mother allowed it.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Ginny and Lily stepped out of the fireplace, looking considerably less dishevelled than Harry and Albus had.

"Where's James?" enquired Hermione.

"Still struggling to get out of bed. He's far too much like his uncle." Ginny stared pointedly at Ron, who feigned a look of innocence. "If he doesn't arrive within the next half an hour I'll go back for him."

Thankfully, he did arrive in the next thirty minutes (probably because he didn't want to feel his mother's wrath), with his father's messy hair and a cheeky grin on his face.

"James!" Rose squealed, letting go of Albus to fling her arms around her older cousin's neck, "Hogwarts! Whole year! Me!" She couldn't even get out a complete sentence, she was so excited.

"I know, Rosie!" James laughed, but Rose narrowed her eyes as a new expression spread across his face. He was plotting.

"James Sirius Potter, don't you dare pull any pranks on me!"

"Or what, Rosie Posie?"

"Or I'll-I'll, er..." She could feel her face turning red with anger. "I'll set Victoire on you!"

At that, James allowed himself to look frightened for a brief moment. An angry Victoire was not something he wanted to deal with, no matter how much he loved her. She was terrifying when she was angry. The fact that she spoke in French when she was angry without realising it made it all the worse, because you could never tell exactly what she was threatening. Oh, how the many Weasleys and Potters wished Fleur hadn't passed that habit onto her and her siblings.

"Rosie!" Hermione shouted from somewhere upstairs. "Come and get your things, we have to go in a few minutes!"

"Yes, Mum!" She called back; her smile spreading almost to her ears, and then ran up the stairs.

When she returned, she had put her Hogwarts robes on. Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Rose, we talked about this, the Muggles-"

"Mum they won't care, plus it's too late now. You know what dad's like in the car. Come on, let's go!"

Soon after, the Weasleys and the Potters were climbing into separate cars to take them to Kings Cross station.

* * *

Rose climbed out of the car feeling a little bit queasy, but she knew it would pass. Her dad's dangerous driving could do nothing to dampen her spirits. She was finally going to Hogwarts! Due to the speed at which her father drove (if you could really use that word for the way Ron carried it out), they arrived a considerable length of time before the Potters, and decided it would be better to continue onto Platform 9 ¾ and wait there.

As soon as the Potters arrived, Harry and Ron went to put the children's trunks onto the train, while Lily and Hugo started talking about what houses they were going to be in – never mind that the day of their sorting was two years away. When Ron overheard the situation, he said,

"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you, but no pressure."

As Rose's mother began to have what she called a 'stern word' with Ron, Rose began to worry. She hadn't really thought about it before, but now she was terrified of letting her parents down. What if she wasn't in Gryffindor? What if she was in Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff, or, god forbid, Slytherin? She didn't even notice her mum talking to her; however she did catch an expression on Albus's face that told her he had begun to worry about his sorting as well.

However, a moment later, her father distracted her by saying,

"Look who it is."

She looked vaguely in the direction that Ron was to see a small, yet visually striking, family. A father and son with platinum blonde hair who looked shockingly similar, and a dark-haired woman who could only be the boy's mother.

"So that's little Scorpius. Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains. "

At the mention of the boy's name, Rose realised that the family were the notorious Malfoys, spoken about in many of her parents' stories from their Hogwarts days. She was still staring as her mother berated Ron,

"Ron, for heaven's sake. Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"

"You're right, sorry," but he turned to Rose and added, "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood."

Rose was still giggling as she climbed onto the train, after saying her goodbyes. She could see Albus having a chat with her Uncle Harry, and Lily bickering with Hugo about something or other. Albus cheered up considerably as his father spoke, and she decided she'd have to ask him about that later.

As Albus climbed in beside her, the whistle blew and the train began to move. The two of them waved happily at their family before the train rounded a corner and they disappeared from sight, and they went to find the compartment that the rest of their family had disappeared into.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Ooh, look only the day after. But anyway, Rose and Scorpius actually meet in this one if that's what you wanted. I think I relaxed a bit more in the narrative in this chapter, so that may make for a nicer read. Anyway, this is kind of a filler - the next chapter has the important bits! Thanks to sparkie926 for being the first (and only at the moment, but shhh) follower. I posted this for you!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it. Love to. Never will. What a shame. Thanks, JK. **

**Chapter 2**

Finding their family wasn't very hard at all – nobody else dared to try and fit that many people in one compartment. It also helped that they were _really_ loud.

Even though the train had barely left the station, Louis, Molly and Dominique were already engrossed in a rather furious game of Exploding Snap, while James and Fred were whispering to each other in the corner and grinning mischievously every time the other said something. Victoire, being a seventh year prefect, had disappeared to a different compartment. Albus jumped into the game of snap, all his previous worries vanished from his face and apparently forgotten. It was only now that Rosie realised that she had forgotten to go to the toilet before they'd left the Burrow, which, due to the fact that they'd had to travel like Muggles (might as well have been cavemen in Rose's opinion) had been quite a long time ago anyway. She gave the rest of her family a quick wave and mouthed 'loo' before disappearing back into the corridor.

The corridor wasn't nearly as empty as she had expected it to be – in fact it was full of students talking to people in different compartments or just being generally boisterous. Apparently there wasn't enough room to do that in the compartments so they had to be a danger to other people as well as themselves. It was actually quite intimidating, especially when a couple of menacing looking older students pulled their wands out. It was enough to cause her to move backwards a couple of steps, before tripping over a piece of carpet that sent her sprawling into another first year, and they both tumbled to the floor.

She pushed her (rather bushy, she had inherited it from her mother) red hair from her eyes and mumbled an apology as she stood up and brushed herself off. She was about to make a very quick exit when she realised that the other student was still on the floor. Feeling bad about the trouble she'd caused, she offered a hand to help him up, and, as he took it, she realised that it was the blonde-haired boy from the station.

"You're Scorpius Malfoy." She said curiously, cocking her head to one side. He nodded, staring at the floor, as if he was shy or, perhaps, uncomfortable. He looked up as she continued,

"My dad told me I had to beat you in every test." A little light came into his eyes at that – where before he had looked slightly worried, he now looked happy. He also sounded happy as he replied to her,

"That's funny – my dad told me the exact same thing. Only that I had to beat you, of course. Rose Weasley, right?" She nodded dumbly, surprised at his friendliness for some reason. She supposed she had expected him to be overly curt or even hostile – the stories she had heard about the Malfoys were not particularly pleasant. He faltered at her expression before continuing, but speaking slower than he had beforehand,

"Nothing wrong with a bit of friendly competition, right, Rose?"

"Erm, yeah, sure." She muttered, not being deliberately impolite, but she frowned and started to walk away.

Scorpius had opened his mouth to offer to walk her back to her compartment, but thought better of it – why would she want a walk back to her compartment? He supposed he had been tempted because he didn't have a compartment to go to, though he'd never tell anyone that. None of the few friends he had were at Hogwarts, so he was almost entirely alone. The conversation that he'd had with Rose was the closest thing he had to 'friendship' on that train so far.

He wandered in the opposite direction to Rose until he came to a quieter part of the train. Noticing a very nearly empty compartment, with just two other first years in it, he poked his head around the door, and asked very quietly,

"Do you mind?"

"Not at all." One of them replied, all three of them blissfully unaware that the moment was very nearly an exact repeat of a scene that took place 26 years earlier between Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.

Seeing that neither of them were talking, and both had their noses buried in a book, Scorpius realised that they were probably in the same situation as him, so he pulled a pack of cards from his pocket, and waved them slightly,

"Either of you fancy a game?"

* * *

Rose was back in the Weasley/Potter compartment, having forgotten to go to the toilet after her ordeal with Scorpius Malfoy. Victoire had returned from her prefect duties, and was discussing the new head boy and girl with Molly and Dominique, while the others had moved on from Exploding Snap to Wizard's Chess. Usually, Rose would jump at the chance to beat any of her cousins at chess, being undefeated so far, but, given that the events of the morning so far had overwhelmed her a little, she elected to curl up by the window with a book. At least until Victoire started questioning her.

"Why were you gone so long, Rosie? You haven't got a boyfriend already, have you? Ah, _l'amour_."

"No, Tori, I couldn't find the toilets. How's Teddy?" Rose was quick for her eleven years, and Victoire's eyebrows shot up immediately. She turned to where James was snickering beside her, and punched him in the arm. His eyes widened in fear, clearly remembering Rose's earlier threat, but Victoire collapsed in a laughing fit at the sight of his face, and once again, there was no tension in the compartment.

Dominique caught Rose's eye and they shared a smirk, and then Rose remembered that she was in dire need of the toilet. She leaned over to her cousin, trying to get heard over the excessively noisy game of chess,

"Dom, when I said I couldn't find the toilets, I meant that I didn't find them at all. And, um, some of the boys are kind of big... and scary. Could you, uh, you know..." She trailed off, and Dominique rolled her eyes jokingly before standing up and making her way towards the door,

"Come on then, Posie, we haven't got all day – just most of it." She winked at her younger cousin as she led the way to the toilets, which were approximately two metres from where Rose had bumped into a certain Malfoy.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake." She muttered angrily under her breath, realising how close she'd been.

"What was that?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Whatever you say, Posie. Do you need help getting back or are you okay by yourself?"

"I'm fine." With those words, Dominique stalked off down the corridor in the opposite direction to their compartment – probably off with some random guy. Some random guy that was more important than Rose, obviously. Well, that was Rose's grumpy thought, at any rate. That day was supposed to be the beginning of the rest of Rose's life, it was supposed to be exciting, and she was supposed to be happy, but everything was just irritating her for no reason, and, though she'd never admit it, it was probably because she'd woken up so early.

* * *

The two other first years in Scorpius's compartment took little convincing to join his game. However, the boy, whose name was Connor, was soon convinced that Scorpius was trying to kill him.

They had started a game of exploding snap, but Connor, being muggle-born, hadn't been expecting the cards to explode. He had been about to make a run for it out of the door when the girl, Helena, called out to him,

"Connor! Wait! Scorpius wasn't trying to do any harm! It's called exploding snap because the cards explode, but they're not going to hurt you." Her voice was soft and sweet, and that was all she had to say to convince him to come back and play. While he stared in amazement at the cards, Helena whispered in Scorpius's ear,

"I think we should let somebody else introduce him to Wizard's Chess." He laughed as she pulled away and grinned at him.

"And Quidditch." Scorpius added. Connor snapped out of his trance at that point, frowning in confusion.

"Quidditch?" He asked.

"That's one for another day," Scorpius laughed again, but stopped as he thought he saw a flash of familiar ginger hair passing by. Like Connor, he frowned until someone snapped their fingers in front of his face and he blinked a few times before turning to face the others. For a moment he glanced out the window and saw that the sky was changing colour and, briefly, he wondered where the time had gone, before realising the unimportance of that thought, and addressed Connor and Helena,

"It's getting dark; we should probably change into our robes soon."

* * *

Rose hadn't been planning on falling asleep, but the journey on the Hogwarts Express was remarkably long (at least it felt like it was), and she'd already read her book enough that it didn't hold her attention very much, and soon after returning from the toilets she had dropped off, much to the amusement of her cousins.

If it hadn't been for Victoire, Rose probably would have woken up with a tail, as she slept very deeply and didn't notice her mischievous relatives. She also wouldn't have awoken before the train pulled in at Hogsmeade if it hadn't been for Albus gently shaking her awake and whispering,

"Rosie, we're finally here. We're at Hogwarts."

And with that, the train pulled to a stop.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N This one's quite a bit longer than the first two (I've been quite excited about this chapter). I'd love to get some reviews if any of you feel like letting me know what you think, as it could really help later on! **

**I'm probably not going to update quite as regularly after this chapter, but I will update as soon as I can.**

**I know some people don't believe that McGonagall would still be at Hogwarts after 19 years, but I like the idea that she'd stay on for a long as humanly (or inhumanly) possible. So, uh, yeah. **

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Hogsmeade looked just as Rose had imagined it – like a smaller, cosier Diagon Alley. It was like she could feel the magic all around her, and she felt at home. She wasn't used to being surrounded by magic, apart from at the Burrow, because she didn't live in a wizarding town. However, she instantly knew that this beautiful little village would become a part of her, as the magic was a part of her.

A little way behind her, just stepping off the train, Scorpius's eyes widened as they took in the stark silhouette of Hogwarts Castle against the darkening blue of the night sky – never had anything looked so out of place but so natural at the same time.

The stupor of both children was broken when the gruff, but kind, voice of Hagrid could be heard through the crowd,

"Firs' years! Over here! Leave yer bags an' head ter the boats!"

At the sight of the half-giant, many of the first years looked frightened, while the other students milling around them were unperturbed, but a massive smile spread across Rose's face and that of Albus, standing next her.

"Hagrid!" They exclaimed at the same time, having not seen the large man since the Christmas of the year before. He would have been a more regular guest at the Burrow had travel been easier for him, but being unable to Apparate left him in his own hut, more often than not. It didn't matter too much, though – even the members of the family not at Hogwarts got to see him at least once a year because he meant everything to their parents – Rose's Uncle Harry in particular.

Scorpius simply looked on in shock as Albus and Rose were swept into Hagrid's arms for a hug.

"My little Rosie and Albus, all grown up!" He laughed as the children blushed furiously, before joining in his laughter – it was infectious. He continued as he put the two of them gently back on the floor,

"Better get movin' – wouldn't want my favourite kids missing their own sorting! Oh, I shouldn'ta said tha'." At the same time, both Rose and Albus frowned. There was a lot of frowning going on today. Hagrid had just reminded them about the sorting. It felt to them as if their paths for the next seven years, maybe even the rest of their lives, were about to be chosen.

They were still sulking as Hagrid coaxed them into a boat.

* * *

The first years journeyed across the lake in almost complete silence – they were gazing in reverence at the castle. Well, it was silent until the Giant Squid made an appearance. At the sight of the huge tentacle, Connor, who had been separated from Scorpius and Helena, shrieked (though Scorpius was convinced it must have been one of the girls) and stood up in the boat. Nobody was really sure what he was trying to achieve, but he ended up falling over and taking the whole boat with him. Scorpius was quite thankful he wasn't in the same boat, even if he did hope that they could be friends – he didn't think friends were going to be easy for him to make at Hogwarts, given his family history.

At the commotion, Albus, Rose and Hagrid turned to see what was going on. Hagrid sighed but didn't seem at all surprised as a tentacle reached out to flip the boat back to its original position and began picking screaming children out of the black waters of the lake.

Once all the extremely soggy children were back in the boat, the squid disappeared and Hagrid pointed his pink umbrella at their boat, causing it to speed forward before slowing beside Hagrid. He simply raised his bushy eyebrows and the other children in the boat glared at Connor, who still looked frightened for his life under Hagrid's gaze. At least until he saw the twinkle in the black beetle eyes. They both smiled slightly.

Upon seeing that most of the boat had started shivering, Hagrid removed his tent of an overcoat and wrapped it around all of them, before letting everyone resume their awed stares at Hogwarts.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts, was waiting for them when they arrived at the castle. Like Hagrid, she didn't seem at all surprised at the small group of sodden first years, and quickly flicked her wand to dry them off – astonishing those of them less familiar with magic. However, though she wasn't surprised, she was very tired. Minerva loved her work at Hogwarts but she couldn't help but think that perhaps she was getting too old for it. Nevertheless, she wanted to honour the memory of Albus Dumbledore, a good friend of hers for many years, by remaining in the job as long as she could, and only stepping down as soon as she was satisfied that her replacement was suitable.

At any rate, she gave her usually speech and, seeing that they were running a little late, hurried the frightened eleven year-olds to the grand doors of the Great Hall before ushering them in.

The usually rowdy students of Hogwarts were always completely silent when it came to the sorting – before the raucous cheering, that was. Of course, this made the first years even more nervous because all of the attention was on them, but it was only for a small amount of time. They'd get over it.

The Sorting Hat's singing took the attention off them for a few minutes, but as the song came to a close, all eyes turned back to the terrified first years.

Many of the students who knew about the animosity between certain houses were lost in their thoughts as the sorting began. Those unaware of house relationships weren't bothered. Among those entirely preoccupied by their thoughts were, Albus, Rose, Scorpius and Helena.

Scorpius was briefly brought out of his reverie when the names of his new acquaintances (he wasn't yet sure if they were his friends) were called, and they were sorted.

"Finch-Fletchley, Helena!" Called McGonagall, her voice coming out sharper than she had intended, so she smiled kindly as the small girl took a seat on the stool, and she placed the hat on her head. After very little deliberation, the Sorting Hat had made its decision,

"Hufflepuff!" It called, gleefully, and the Hufflepuff table cheered for the new member of their house. Immediately after Helena, Connor was called;

"Hicks, Connor!" And he walked up to the stool, shaking as the hat was placed on his head, where it almost instantly yelled,

"Hufflepuff!" He had someone he knew in his house, which was good, Scorpius thought; Helena would make sure he wasn't alienated because of the boat incident. He was glad that both himself and Connor had had the luck of meeting Helena – she was an extraordinarily nice person.

He was lost in his thoughts once again until his own name was called out, at which quite a number of heads snapped up. So much for anonymity, he thought. He heard a few sniggers as he accidentally stumbled as he neared the stool, but elected to ignore them.

The Sorting Hat began whispering to itself as soon as it was placed on his head – it spoke about his family, as Scorpius had expected, but then he heard the word 'Ravenclaw' in the very nearly incoherent mumbled coming from above him, and whispered back to the hat, politely,

"Could you please put me into Slytherin?"

"Oh, but I don't think you belong there, my boy," the hat almost spluttered, "You almost certainly belong in Ravenclaw."

"But I need to be in Slytherin." He was very blunt about it. He couldn't be in Ravenclaw. What would his father say? What would grandfather say? He felt rather than heard the hat sigh before it spoke again,

"Very well, Mr Malfoy, but don't change too much. You're a Ravenclaw at heart. Remember that. Slytherin!" The hat shouted the last word, and the Slytherin table exploded – clearly they had been expecting a different result given the time it had taken the hat to decide.

He was the subject of many pats on the back as he joined the green and silver table, before he sat and turned to watch the rest of the sorting, catching Rose Weasley looking at him, her eyebrows pushed together in confusion. He tried to smile at her but she just turned away from him, and the next name was called,

"Potter, Albus!"

Nearly every head in the hall turned at that. Of course, James Potter was already at Hogwarts, but he didn't look quite so remarkably like his father as Albus did, and everyone was eager to see which house he would be in. Most naturally assumed that he'd been in Gryffindor – almost all of the Potters and Weasleys were, with the exception of Molly, who was in Hufflepuff, and Louis, who was in Ravenclaw.

The hat hadn't been on Albus's head for very long before it shouted,

"Slytherin!"

There a silence in the Great Hall. A silence that continued as Albus made his way dazedly to the Slytherin table. He remembered what his father had said to him before he got onto the Hogwarts Express. Being in Slytherin didn't matter. But he still couldn't bring himself to look into the disbelieving eyes of his family at the Gryffindor table. He sat down ungracefully next to Scorpius, just as the silence was broken by McGonagall.

"Thomas, Colin!"

Albus felt heat prick the back of his eyes as he stared down at his empty plate. His family was going to be so disappointed in him. He didn't believe a word of what his dad had said. He had surely just been trying to make him feel better about the whole situation – he didn't actually mean it. A Potter in Slytherin?

"Weasley, Rose!"

Momentarily, Albus looked up to see Rose sorted into Ravenclaw. At least he wasn't the only one breaking tradition. Just the only one to do it so spectacularly.

With the Sorting over, an abundance of food appeared on plates that ran the length of the table, and the feast began.

* * *

Rose had joined her third-year cousin, Louis, at the Ravenclaw table, and he was busy introducing her to his friends and some others at the table when she caught the eye of Albus, sitting at the Slytherin table. He wasn't eating, and she thought he looked like he was about to cry. She gave Louis a quick wave before hurrying over to the Slytherin table, ignoring the rather rude jeers about her hair and her freckles coming from some of the older students at the table.

"Al?" She asked softly as she tapped him on the shoulder. Seeing the look on his face, she continued,

"Al, it's okay. The rest of the family will get over it – it doesn't matter. Who cares about tradition that much? I mean, it's not like we're Malfoys or anythi-" she stopped as she realised that Scorpius was sat immediately next to Albus. She blinked at him and stuttered,

"I-I-um-I'm really, uh, I didn't mean – I mean, I'm sorr-" she cut off again as Scorpius interrupted her,

"It's fine. I get it." She tried to ignore the look on his face as he turned away from the two of them, but she couldn't help but feel guilty for what she'd said. He hadn't said anything to make her believe that there was anything wrong with the way he acted, after all. Familial prejudices were difficult to let go of, she supposed. But that wasn't important at the moment – of all her cousins, she was closest to Albus, mostly because they were the same age, and she couldn't bear to see him in the state that he was in. Quickly, she made up her mind and grabbed his arm to drag him over to the Gryffindor table, where the majority of their family were chatting animatedly. Though, as Albus and Rose neared them, conversation halted. For a moment, they just stared. But then James's face broke into a grin,

"Ruining the family's reputation already, Albie?"

Rose could tell that Albus was trying not to laugh as he realised that it really didn't matter to his family that he was in Slytherin, even if they had been completely shocked initially. He went to punch James in the arm for using his hated childhood nickname, and the conversation at the table resumed. After chatting to each of his cousins and some family friends for a bit, he returned to the Slytherin table, looking considerably better than he had twenty minutes before, and Rose returned to the Ravenclaw table.

Soon after, the food vanished from their plates and Professor McGonagall stood to make a few start of term announcements.

Though by this point, Rose had to admit that she was extremely tired, she was bouncing up and down in her seat – much as she had earlier in the day – eager to see her common room and dormitory. She didn't really listen to the announcements, but jumped up as soon as they were dismissed, and practically skipped behind the seventh year prefect leading the way to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

Scorpius dawdled behind the rest of the Slytherin group as they left the Great Hall. He was beginning to think he had made a mistake, until Albus Potter nudged him and mumbled,

"She really didn't mean it, you know. Rose, I mean. About Malfoys and tradition and stuff. Earlier."

"Yeah, I know." They grinned at each other as they began to walk towards the dungeons.


End file.
